Along with Instagram Reels, there are three other options for video content on the Instagram platform. Let’s learn more.
Along with Instagram Reels, there are three other options for video content on the Instagram platform. Let’s learn more.
The first place to publish video content up to 60 seconds long in your grid. Video only posted to the grid will not show up on the Reels page and typically gets less reach than Reels.
The next option for video content on Instagram is IG Live. Live videos are a great way to help your audience get to know more about your brand personality.
Once you finish going live, you can save your live to your IGTV. IGTV gives you the ability to post videos up to 60 minutes long.
Creating IGTV videos can be a great way to establish your thought leadership on Instagram.
Videos created within Instagram and then saved to your IGTV page can also be downloaded and reused on other platforms.
To download your IGTV videos, first access your Instagram account through Creator Studio. From the home page, click on IGTV. Find the video you would like to download and open it. From there, click on the three dots in the right hand corner of the video and then click on download.
When it comes to video content, it isn’t always the easiest to create, so make sure you are saving your videos and repurposing them on your other social media platforms.
It’s worth nothing that Reels, Live videos, and IGTV videos have a ratio of 9:16. Video content on your grid should be cropped for a 1080 x 1080 square ratio. The next video will tell you more about the Instagram image sizing.
Reels are the newest, and arguably most important feature on Instagram. Let’s learn more about them.
In this lesson, we’ll be learning about the newest, and arguably most important feature on Instagram, Reels.
With Instagram making the shift away from being a photo sharing app, Reels video content has quickly come to dominate the platform and will play an important role in the content you create for your brand’s Instagram account. Let’s learn more.
Reels, which are very similar to TikToks, are short form video content. The max length for Reels is 90 seconds.
Reels give content creators the opportunity to create engaging video content by allowing them to add in voice overs, music, text, stickers, and more.
While Reels may not be right for every brand, here’s something worth considering. When the NFL started leveraging Reels, their content saw 67% more engagement.
Reels are the best option for having your content reach more non-followers and generating more engagement.
To get started creating a Reel, tap on the plus sign at the top of your homepage and select Reels from the drop down menu.
Once you are in the Reels creation page, you will see several icons on the right hand side of the screen. Tapping on these will give you access to music, will allow you to select the length of the video, the speed of your video content, and more.
The video below will talk you through the options for creating Reels.
While Reels content has the potential to go viral, make sure you are creating content that helps your audience understand your brand and your services better. A dance video may initially get your channel lots of likes and new followers, but if they aren’t the right kinds of followers, then you won’t be able to convert them into paying customers.
Finding the right time to post your content is just as important as finding the right posts to share. This lesson shows you how to figure out the best time to post your content.
To maximize engagement on your Instagram page, you need a smart and efficient posting schedule.
According to experts, the best time to post on Instagram is on Wednesdays between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm, and the worst time to post is in the middle of the night.
You should always post your content when your audience has down time and is checking their accounts.
For instance, if you’re a business with lots of London-based followers, you can post during rush hour when people are stuck on buses and have nothing else to do but check their phones.
The more information you have about your audience, the easier it will be to create an optimized posting schedule.
The best way to get this information is by using Instagram Insights.
To get started, log in to your account and tap on the Insights icon on the top right corner of your profile.
On the Insights screen, tap on the Audience option.
Instagram will then show you information about your audience’s gender, age range, and location.
On the bottom of the page under the Followers section, you’ll see a chart showing when your followers are most active.
You can view the most active hours as well as the most active days by tapping on the options above the graph.
When analyzing this data, make sure you use both options to optimize your schedule.
For example, if you notice that your users are most active on Thursdays between 9 am to 12 pm, you can modify your schedule to have more posts going up around that time.
If you haven’t posted any content to your page yet, you can use your competitor’s data to figure out an optimal posting schedule.
Simply go to your competitor’s Instagram profile, and tap on the three dots on the top right corner of their profile.
You’ll then need to select the Turn on Notifications option so that you can get a notification whenever they add a new post.
Over time, you’ll see how often your competitors post content on Instagram and on what days they get the most engagement on their posts.
Once you’ve determined the best posting schedule using your Insights and competitor data, you can use Later.com to schedule all your posts ahead of time.
In the following video, you’ll see how easy it is to schedule your Instagram posts using Later.com.
How often should you post? There are many different studies; however, they all differ in results, largely because Instagram is still relatively new compared to Facebook.
Our suggestion is to post anywhere from 3 to 7 times a week, but feel free to be flexible and experiment. Just make sure to keep track of your insights and pay attention to any fluctuations in your followers count.
Posting Instagram Stories to your profile is an effective way to start conversations with your followers. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use stories to build your audience.
The brands who tell the most interesting stories on social media are the ones that build massive audiences.
Stories are powerful because they help you connect with your audience on an emotional level, and give your brand personality.
With the release of Instagram Stories, it’s now easier than ever to engage your audience with compelling photos and videos.
Instagram Stories lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile.
As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format.
The slideshow is called your story.
All stories disappear after 24 hours, which means that you’ll need to post at the right time to ensure the best results.
Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments on Instagram Stories.
Your story follows the privacy settings of your account. If you set your account to private, your story is visible only to your followers.
As a result, you’ll be able to increase the number of 1:1 conversations with your followers and build your community on Instagram.
The video below will show you how to create a story on Instagram.
The more stories you post, the more likely you’ll appear at the top of someone’s Instagram feed while they’re on the platform.
You should use your stories to deliver special offers and share additional photos and videos that you don’t want to add to your main newsfeed.
Content curation is a great way to extend your reach and increase your followers on Instagram. This lesson shows you all the steps involved in curating other people’s content.
The photos you post to your Instagram profile should not only look good, but they should also highlight your brand’s image.
If you take a look at the most popular pages on Instagram, you’ll notice that they all have a consistent theme and a preference for specific types of posts.
For example, Nike prefers to post a lot of videos of athletes to their page, whereas 9GAG primarily posts funny memes.
In addition to posting original content, brands also use content curation to engage with their audiences.
Content curation doesn’t involve creating new content.
Instead, it involves discovering, compiling, and sharing existing content with your followers on Instagram.
Curated posts provide extra value to your audience and help position your brand as a trustworthy source of information.
A simple way to find posts to curate is by searching for relevant hashtags in your niche.
All you have to do is login to your Instagram account and tap on the magnifying glass icon on the bottom left corner.
Next, enter a keyword in the search bar, and select the “Tags” tab to view all the hashtags related to the keyword.
When you tap on a hashtag, Instagram will show you the top posts with that hashtag, as well as the most recent posts.
If you want to use someone else’s image on your profile, you’ll need to download the Repost app to your phone by visiting repostapp.com.
When reposting content to your profile, don’t forget to credit the original author by adding a @mention to your post’s caption.
The original author will get notified when you mention their name in your caption, which can lead to them sharing your posts to their followers as well.
Some pages such as “@bestvines” rely solely on curated content while others mainly create their own content. For most business pages, the optimal ratio involves a healthy dose of both.
Each Instagram page has a unique audience, but thankfully Instagram’s insights will help you get a better grasp of your audience’s preferred content.
Instagram captions play a significant role in the performance of your posts. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to write compelling options that get your users excited about your content.
Having a great Instagram caption can be the difference between getting lots of likes on your posts and getting none.
An Instagram caption adds context, shows off your brand’s personality, entertains your audience, and gets your followers to take action.
Captions can be up to 2,200 characters long and can include emojis and up to 30 hashtags.
Captions don’t need to be long to be effective.
The most important thing to remember about captions is that they have to speak to the content you’re sharing and to your audience.
When writing a caption, start by answering the following questions:
What are the qualities and values you want your brand to embody?
What adjectives describe your brand?
Your answers will give you a better idea of what language to use in your caption and which emotions you want to convey through your posts.
Because captions are cut off in users’ feeds after a few lines of text, you need to convey your key point or call to action right away.
You can even add @mentions and hashtags at the end of your captions, and ask questions to your followers to get more engagement on your photo.
Emojis can also help draw the reader’s eye in and add a bit of personality to your caption.
There are three main types of posts you can share with your followers on Instagram. This lesson shows you how to create them.
Inspirational posts, culture posts, and product posts are the most effective types of posts to add to your Instagram profile.
Inspirational posts are particularly effective for brands in the personal development and fitness niche, however they can be used in any niche that has a passionate audience.
They usually consist of quotes and a background image.
As you can see, inspirational posts are perfect for motivating your audience and giving them a quick pick-me-up during the day.
To create an inspirational post, you can download the Canva app to your phone and log into your account or create one.
Once you’re logged in, select the Instagram design option from the top menu, tap on a design you like, and type in an inspirational quote using Canva’s editing tools.
When you’ve finished editing the image, you can tap on the Share option on the top right corner and save the image to your phone’s camera roll.
Now that you have a good understanding of inspirational posts, let’s move on to the next type of post – culture posts.
Culture posts are intended to show the culture of a company. They are excellent for increasing your brand’s transparency and building trust with your audience.
For example, here’s a behind the scenes post from Dropbox showing what happens during the company’s “hack week.”
The final type of post you can add to your profile is a product post.
These posts tell your audience about the benefits of your product and how that will help them in everyday life.
For example, this product post by FitBit shows students how they can use a FitBit wristband to stay active on campus.
Setting up an Instagram account isn’t difficult, but a personal account and a business profile are definitely two different things. This lesson will show you how to set up an account for your small business or personal brand, and optimize it for success.
Instagram has over 1 billion active users, and an average of 95 million pictures are uploaded daily.
According to Instagram Business, there are over 200 million business accounts operating on the platform.
70% of Instagram users use the platform to find their next purchase, making it a valuable tool for businesses.
Businesses and influencers who haven’t started promoting on Instagram are missing out on a huge opportunity to build awareness around their brands and connect with their audience.
Instagram offers three types of accounts- personal, creator, and business.
To make the most of your Instagram account, make sure your page is set up as a business or creator account. Without doing so, you won’t have access to ad capabilities or analytics.
Creator accounts are specific for influencers who don’t seem to fall under the small business category, but are profiting off on Instagram nonetheless.
The video below explains how to set up your Instagram account.
There are four key aspects of your profile: Your IG handle, your profile photo, your headline, and your bio.
First, let’s look at your IG handle. It’s the most searchable part of your profile, meaning when people search for your account on Google or Yahoo, typing your handle in that search bar is the best way they’ll find it.
Make sure it’s memorable, on brand, and catchy. If you are your brand (or you’re creating a personal brand), don’t be scared to use your name as your handle.
Remember, it’s best to keep things professional but memorable. If you’re building a profile for your small business, a clear photo of your logo is enough.
If you’re building a personal brand, snap a nice picture of you and use that as your profile photo. You don’t need to bust out a camera crew—it could be a selfie, as long as it’s clear, memorable, and professional.
Next, let’s look at your headline—the second most searchable part of your Instagram profile. While your handle has to be memorable and on-brand, your headline has to havewords that your target audience is searching for.
For example, our headline is “Marketing Apprenticeships” because our target audience is looking for marketing help, apprentices, or apprenticeships.
Last, let’s look at your bio. Your bio is just as important as your headline and IG handle because it’s what people see first when they visit your profile. So you need to convey what value you are adding to your target audiences’ lives in 150 characters.
Instagrammers usually take 30 seconds to gauge whether a profile is worth following or not. That means you have 30 seconds, at most.
The format we recommend is “what you do” + “your target marketing” + “what value you want to add.” What does that mean?
Here’s an example:
“We help small businesses revolutionize their marketing strategies so that their customers become advocates of their brands.”
Check out this helpful article for examples and ideas on creating a strong Instagram bio.
And of course, don’t forget your link in bio!
A few years ago, Instagram implemented a rule that links are no longer allowed anywhere on a business profile—except in your bio.
A lot of smalls businesses, therefore, have a link in their bios that shows users a list of relevant links.
While placing your website link as the main link in your bio, it’s not the best practice. By using tools like linktr.ee and many.link, you get to show your target audience a full list of links when they click the link in your IG bio.
Remember that you can delete links from your link in bio. Keep around 5 or 6 in there, so that your audience doesn’t get confused about what to click.
Sometimes it’s better to share other people’s content instead of creating your own. In this lesson, you’ll learn how and when to retweet posts by other users.
Retweeting posts by other users on Twitter is a great way to build rapport with your followers and expand your network.
Every time you retweet a post from someone else, they get a notification explaining that you have mentioned them.
In the Facebook course, we covered the ABC content strategy. A refers to content related to your business, B is industry related content, and C refers to non-industry-related content that provides value to your audience.
We suggest you retweet C content often because it provides entertaining value to your audience and can help in positioning your brand as an authority.
Examples of content you can retweet include colorful images, infographics and charts, or funny content. This type of content can generate up to 10x more retweets for your brand.
Retweeting other users on a regular basis can help you reach new users on Twitter.
We recommend that you take the time to find out what’s trending in your niche before retweeting. You can accomplish this by using Twitter’s search tool.
For example, if you search for the hashtag “#marketing”, you’ll see all the top tweets related to marketing.
It’s also important to look at the number of retweets and likes on a tweet before retweeting it to your profile.
As a general rule of thumb, you should only retweet a post with at least 20 likes and retweets because it will have a better chance of performing well on your Twitter profile.
Once you’ve found a post you want to retweet, click on the retweet button to share it with your audience.
Twitter will also give you the option to add a comment to your retweet and allow you to edit your tweet before sending it out.
